Angel's Punishment
by The Silverthorn
Summary: Eleven years ago, Eggman started a war against good. That battle was lost, And now Mobius is under Eggman's rule. In penance for the war, a game was devised in order to make the people of Mobius pay. This game was known as the hunger games. The Rules: Kill or be Killed. It is now the ninth year if the Hunger Games, this is the year things will change.
1. Prologue, A battle lost

Prologue, A battle lost

Eleven years ago, Eggman started an uprising, a battle against good, with over a million robots and all the enemies you could think off, The Sonic Team stood little chance.

But they fought anyway.

The battle lasted two agonizingly long years, Blood was split and lives were lost. Almoat every mobius on the planet played their bit, no-one wanted Eggman to win. Finally, towards the last few days of this war, the battle was coming to an end.

But not a happy one.

Eggman unleashed his ultimate weapon upon the Sonic Team. They stood no chance. The battle was lost and Eggman could finally rule the world. But that wasn't the end.

To make sure no-one would start an uprising against him, Sonic was taken and held captive. As much as the team tried, Sonic was lost. Whether he was alive or not, they didn't know.

From then one, Eggman ruled Mobius, with Scourge and Nega having control as well. Mobius was now split into twelve parts, or districts as they are known. Each district specializing in a different job that would serve the capitol, or Eggtropolis. All the districts were kept in tight order. There was no free will, not anymore. The Sonic team was sent to the most poorest district of them all, District 12.

But Eggman still wanted Mobius to pay. So he devised a plan, a revenge.

Every year since the battle ended, children between the age of 15 and 24 were made to volunteer for an annual game. This game was known as the Hunger Games. Winning meant fame and glory, losing means certain death.

The Rules:

Kill or be Killed, simple as that.

The objective:

Kill all your opponents, survive all that the game makers throw at you, and come out champion, there can only be one winner.

24 children are volunteered each year, 12 boys, 12 girls.

So far no-one only two members of the Sonic team were volunteered, Shadow and Sally. Only Shadow won out of the two.

Now it's the ninth year of the Hunger Games.

Good luck, and may the odds be ever in your favor.


	2. Chapter 1, Victim of a Tribute

**Chapter 1, Victim of a Tribute**

Amy woke up in the coldness of the morning, she had little sleep, then again why would she? Today was reaping day. Amy was now 23, it was her eighth year of the reaping.

But she wasn't the only one to have a bad night. Amy heard the cries of Cream once again. Quickly she rushed over to her room and sat by her bed. Cream was now 17, it was her second year of the reaping.

"Hey, Hey, Calm down, it's alright" Amy hushed. Cream eventually calmed down and said

"It's not alright, I might get picked this year" Amy shook her head in response

"No, No you won't, your name's only in their once, remember I volunteered to put my name in more times than you, it won't be you I promise" Cream nodded slightly, she clutched the ends of her covers.

"I have to go now alright, you try to get some sleep"

"I can't" Cream replied

"Try" Amy replied softly, she then left the room and went downstairs, she put on her brown jacket, black boots and left the house in peace.

Amy walked down the seam, possibly on of the poorest places in district twelve. Everywhere she saw poverty and death. People were practically scrapping the littlest of meat of bones just for something to eat. It was horrific.

Finally Amy made it to the district borders. Surrounding the district was a tall, electric fence. They say it was to keep wild animals out, but they all knew it was to keep the people in. It was meant to be live all the time, but nowadays it wasn't at the early hours in the morning, and in the late hours of the night. However Amy still lent in to listen for the faint buzzing of electricity, just in case. Thankfully it wasn't, so Amy ducked under the fence and went out into the open field and down into the woods.

Amy walked into the woods, where she stopped at a certain tree, the tree was hollow and had a crack going right down the side, there she stored her bow and arrows, and her hammer, but that was little use now. She took out her bow and arrow from the tree and began walking around the forest, looking for prey.

She was quiet, fast, stealth-like. She used all her knowledge she learned on tracking and survival to track down the perfect prey. Finally she found it, she had come across a deer, a good sized one at that. A smile spread across her face, she crouched down and loaded her bow. She hid behind a tree and aimed towards the deer. She fired her arrow but missed by a hairline, as a result the deer got scared and ran off. A sigh of frustration left Amy's lips, but she didn't give up. She followed the deer who had run up the top of a mount. Amy hid behind and bush and aimed once again. She breathed in and out, inhaling and exhaling. Finally after her full attention was on this shot, she aimed and...

"What are you going to do with that one you kill it!?" shouted an annoying yet recognizable voice. Having heard the voice, the deer perked up and ran off. Amy released her bow and shouted back in frustration

"Damn you Knuckles!" Knuckles only laughed in response as he made his way down towards Amy, He was now 24, this was his last year of reaping. Thankfully.

"What are going to do with that? It's reaping day, the place is crawling with peace keepers" Once he was with Amy, Amy playfully punched him round the arm

"I was going to sell it, to the peace keepers" She replied, Knuckles gave her a look of doubt "Oh like you don't sell to the peace keepers?!" Knuckles shook his head and said

"No not today!"

"Yeah well now I have nothing" Knuckles raised an eyebrow and smiled, he picked up a rock and threw it to a tree full of birds, the rock hit the tree and a flock of birds spread from the tree. Amy quickly loaded her bow and shot down one of the birds. The two laughed as the rest of the birds flew away.

Suddenly they heard a loud noise, the noise of an engine. The two looked up and saw a huge aircraft flying towards the district. On impulse the two ran and hide underneath a tree, away from the aircraft's view. Once it had past over, Amy got out from the tree and went over to get the dead bird. She then stored it in her bag and the two went over to a field, just off the district's border. It was close to the district but away from view of the peace keepers.

The settled down and Knuckles took of his bag and started fishing through it.

"What is it?" Amy asks, Knuckles looks at her and smiles, as he does he pulls out a loaf of bread from his bag. Amy gasps in shock

"Oh my god! Is this real?!" Amy asks in awe, Knuckles laughs and replies

"Better be, otherwise I want my squirrel back!" The two laugh and Knuckles tears the bread in two. He gives one half to Amy and says

"Here, Happy Hunger Games" Amy takes the bread and replies

"And may the odds be ever in your favor" The two laugh once again, Amy takes a moment to smell the sweet warmness of the bread. It was just so good, she didn't know when was the last time she had smelt this sweet smell of bread. She finally took a bite of the warm bread. It was plain but that didn't matter, it was warm and tasted good. Amy hadn't had proper bread like this for a good six months, it was very rare for her to have a bit of a bread this good.

The two finally finished eating the bread, a silence swept through them until Amy finally spoke up

"How many times is your name in this year?"

"42" Knuckles simply replies "Guess the odds aren't exactly in my favor"

"How come?" Amy asks in curiosity and shock

"I promised Rouge that she wouldn't be picked out this year, same with Tails" Amy looked down in anguish "What about you?" he asks

"30" Amy replies "I couldn't let Cream be picked out, her names only in there once, the odds must be in her favor, must be"

"Let's hope so" Knuckles replies. The two then looked out into the distance, out there, it was just acres and acres of forest and mountains. There was nothing but wilderness.

"We could do it you know" Knuckles says

"Do what?" Amy asks in confusion

"Take off, live in the woods, we practically do that anyway"Amy shook her head and said

"They'd catch us, besides you have Tails to look after an I have Cream, not to mention we'd have to take Rouge and Shadow with us"

"They can come too" Knuckles replied

"Cream in the woods?!" Amy replied in doubt

"Or maybe not"

"Besides we wouldn't make it five miles" Knuckles smiled and said

"No, I'd make five miles, I'd go that way"He pointed over towards one of the mountains in the distance. Amy smiled back.

"But we couldn't go, not without Sonic" she said in anguish and regret. Knuckles gave out a sigh of annoyance but also with grief

"Amy, you have to let him go, you can't blame yourself for what happened that day, we don't even know where he is or even if he's alive, You've got to accept it" Knuckles said, but Amy just shook her head and said

"No, he is alive, he must be in Eggtropolis, that's were Eggman is, and if he's there, so must Sonic. He has to be!" Amy was now on the verge of tears. She couldn't accept that her love was dead.

"Amy! Please, don't let this consume you!" Knuckles said as he took a hold of her hands. Amy looked up at him and dried away the tears

"I'm sorry" she whispered

"It's okay" Knuckles replied back, he then got up and said

"Right, well we had better go, don't want the peacekeepers on our trail" Amy got up and said

"Yeah, Thanks for the bread"

"No problem" The two then walked back to the borders and went back into the district. Before they parted Knuckles said

"Oh before you go, I have this for you" he then gave her a small pin with a strange pattern on it, once Amy looked closer it resembled something very familiar

"Looks familiar huh?" Knuckles replied with a smile, Amy looked at it and her eyes widened, the pattern wasn't a pattern at all, but the seven chaos emeralds! It even had the colours on them.

"Where did you find this?!"

"Just while I was around the hob, I guess someone still believes eh?" Amy smiled at him and said

"Thank you, thank you so much!" Knuckles smiles, before they parted ways he called Amy

"Good luck Amy" Amy smiled and said

"You too"

Amy walked back to her house were she found Cream all ready and dressed and clean. She was wearing a brown checkered dress with a small bow at the back.  
"Wow look at you!" Amy said with a smile "You look wonderful"

"Thanks" Cream muttered with a smile. Amy then went upstairs and got washed and dressed. She wore a light red dress with pale pink shoes. She then went downstairs and sadly smiled at Cream.

"You ready?" Cream shook her head and a tear quietly fell from her eye

"hey, hey don't cry, please don't cry" Amy went over to Cream and put her arm around her

"What if I'm picked out?!" Cream asks

"You won't, I promise, and you know it I can prove it!"

"How?!" Cream asked in doubt. Amy smiled and showed her the pin Knuckles gave her

"It's for you, look at it, don't those colours look familiar?" Cream frowned and looked at the pin, once she had a good look she gasped

"Those are the Chaos..." Cream shouted, but Amy quickly shut her up

"Shh! Don't want the peacekeepers knowing even if it is only a pin!" Cream nodded. She thanked Amy for the pin,

"If someone made that, then it shows someone still believes, and know I believe that you won't be picked" Amy said with a smile. Cream smiled back and put on the pin.

Suddenly the loud siren of the reaping horn could be heard.

"You ready?" Amy asked

"Let's go" Cream said

The two left the house and made their way to the district's square. Once they arrived it was full of people aged 15 to 24. All were nervous, all were scared. The two lined up and awaited to be checked in. To be checked in, a blood sample needed to be taken, Something Cream took a personal dislike to, but she had to have it. Once the two were checked in they made their way to the square and lined up in their age groups. Each was horizontal, facing the stage.

"I'll see you later Cream" Amy said as she parted from her. Once she was in her line she looked over to the boys and saw Knuckles and Tails

"Good luck" she mouthed, the two nodded back. Rouge came and lined behind her

"Good luck" Rouge whispered to her

"You too" Amy replied.

Soon the square plunged into silence and awaited the arrival of Effie. She was in charge of the tributes of district 12. Finally she arrived on stage, straight from Eggtropolis. She was wearing the most ridiculous pink outfit and pink wig, it nearly made Amy laugh. She stood up on the stage and talked into the microphone

"Welcome, Welcome, Happy Hunger games and may the odds be ever in your favour" no-one responded an eerie silence swept through to square.

"Now the time has come once again, to select once courageous young man and woman in the honor of representing district 12 in the ninth annual hunger games" Amy raised her eyebrow, Honor?! Is that what they call it?

"Now as usual ladies first" Effie made her way towards the glass bowl that held all of the woman's names. Her hand hovered over the bowl until she finally picked one out. She walked back to the center of the stage and read it out loud

"Cream the Rabbit" Amy's eyes widened, Out all the people it had to be her!

It had to be Cream.


	3. Chapter 2, Hope?

**Chapter 2, Hope?**

Cream remained frozen in fear, it can't be her! It just couldn't!

"Come on up dear" said Effie in her annoyingly high pitched voice. Slowly Cream walked out of the crowd and into the center of the square. Everyone looked at her, she was terrified. Cream slowly walked to the stage, Amy walked out onto the center of the square

"Cream, Cream!" she called, Cream looked back at her, her eyes showing plead and help. A couple of peacekeepers tried to stop Amy from going to her, but Amy fought them and yelled

"I... I... I VOLUNTEER!" She pushed past the peacekeepers and yelled once again "I volunteer as tribute!" Everyone gasped, for the first time in the history of the hunger games, someone from district 12 has volunteered.

"Well it seems like we have a volunteer!" cried Effie, Amy rushed over to Cream, she held her hands and said

"Go find Tails, Go on go find him"

"No, No!" Cream cried, tears fell from both their eyes

"Go find him, go!" Knuckles ran out into the center of the square, he picked up Cream and moved away from Amy.

"No!" Cream still cried as Knuckles took her away. Amy then walked up to the stage, peacekeepers making sure she wouldn't run back. She finally made it to the stairs leading to the stage, slowly Amy walked up, peacekeepers blocking the exit back. Once Amy was up next to Effie, Effie asked

"What's your name dear?" Amy stared at everyone who was looking at her, as if she was courageous or that she was full of absolute stupidity.

"Amy Rose" Amy replied quietly

"Well let's give our volunteer a big round of applause" cried Effie. No-one cheered, instead people raised their right hands, kissing them as they went up, and showed their three middle fingers. This was the sign of the districts. A sign of true courage, bit more importantly it was a sign of hope. An eerie silence swept through the square.

"And now for the boys!" Effie exclaimed, breaking the silence. She walked over to the bowl that held all of the boy's names. Quickly she rummaged around the bowl until she pulled one out, she then went back to the microphone and called out the name

"Ari Batchelder" Amy didn't recognize this name, he was new to him. Slowly Ari made his way to the stage. No-one volunteered for him.

"Ladies and gentleman, our tributes from district 12, Amy Rose and Ari Batchelder!" exclaimed Effie "Well shake hands" the two looked at each other and shook hands. Effie then took them inside the central hall of district 12 where they would wait for their friends and families to say their goodbye's.

Amy was staring out of the window of the room she was kept in, she wondered whether or not this was the last time she would ever see district 12, whether she would ever she her friends again, whether these next few weeks would be her last.

Amy then heard a door open and a someone calling her name, immediately she whipped around and found Cream running into her arms

"Amy, Amy!" Cream wept, Amy hugged her back and gently stroked the back of her head

"hey, hey, it's alright" Amy then knelt down so she faced Cream "Listen, you're going to be okay, don't take any extra food from them it isn't worth putting your name in more times, Knuckles will bring meat for you" Cream cried some more and said

"Just try to win, please" Amy looked at her with eyes of sympathy and anguish

" Maybe I can, I'm smart you know"

"You can hunt" Cream replied

"Exactly" Cream then looked down and handed Amy something, Amy took a hold of it, it was the emerald pin.

"To bring hope" Cream said

"Thank you" Amy whispered. She placed it into her pocket and gave Cream a hug, she then looked up at Rouge, who had come in with Cream. Amy stood up and walked over to her

"You had better win for god sake" Rouge said

"I will" Amy replied

"I need you, we need you" Rouge said, nearly on the verge of tears

"I promise I'll come back" Amy said

"You better!" Rouge said as she pulled Amy in for a hug

"I will" Amy whispered.

"Time's up" Said a peacekeeper. The Rouge let go of Amy and took a hold of Cream

"No!" Cream cried once again

"It's okay, I promise Cream, I'll win!" The two then left and the door was slammed shut.

It didn't take long for the door to open once again, this time three figures appeared at the door. Tails, Shadow and Knuckles had all come to wish her farewell. Amy hugged all of them, but she hugged Knuckles for the longest.

"I'm okay, I'm okay" she said as she let go, Knuckles then grabbed a hold of Amy's shoulders and said

"Listen to me, your stronger than they are, get to a bow!"

"I may not have a bow!" Amy cried

"Then get an axe, or even a sword, you handled a hammer, there's no difference" Shadow said

"Listen you know how to hunt" Knuckles said

"Animals" Amy muttered

'It's not that different" Knuckles replied, A silence swept through them until Tails spoke up and said

"Promise us you'll win" Amy looked at Tails and smiled

"I promise" Shadow then stepped forward and said to Amy

"Some advice, food and water are your priority, always be armed and for god sake, WIN" Amy hugged Shadow and thanked him.

"Listen we'll see you soon alright" Knuckles said

"There's 24 of us Knuckles and only one comes out" Said Amy in despair

"Yes, and it's going to be you"

The door opened once again and Knuckles, Shadow and Tails were made to leave, Amy hugged them once more and said

"Take care of Cream and Rouge, whatever you do don't let them starve!"

"I'll see you soon!" Knuckles shouted, and with that they were gone.

Amy was then lead from the center hall, to a car where Effie and Ari awaited. The three then drove out of district 12 and to a station where a train awaited them. This would be the train that would take Amy and Ari to the Eggtropolis, after that the game would begin.

Deep in the heart of Eggtropolis, underneath Eggman's base, a young, tortured, sick soul was trapped. He was beaten, bruised, chained up to the walls. He had tried to escape many times before but every time he would be caught, he was getting slower, far slower. He was weak, helpless and alone.

His name he nearly forgot but now it was the thing he held dear.

Sonic the Hedgehog, that was his name, he had to keep a hold of that, forever. That is what he promised. A promise he shall keep.

There was also another promise, another name which he swore never to forget. And he never will.

Suddenly the doors to his prison cell was opened and a robot came in, he was pushing in some sort of screen, at first it was hard to tell exactly what it was but he soon realized it was a TV. It must be the time of the Hunger Games once again. It was hard to keep track of time while in this cell. Soon the notorious Eggman entered the cell, a maniacal plastered on his face.

"What do you want now Egg-head?!" Sonic spat "You make me watch this thing every year, what's meant to do?! Remind me of my failure?! I get the message you won, alright YOU WON! HAPPY?!" Sonic cried, Eggman only laughed in response

"You are right Sonic, I do want to make you suffer, but this year, I thought you might be a little more interested in these games" Eggman replied, the tone of his voice sent shivers down Sonic's spine. The robot then turned on the screen

"Enjoy" Eggman said maniacally, and with that he left, leaving Sonic alone once again. Once the screen was turned on, it showed all of the reapings from district 1 all the way to district 12. Sonic confused about why Eggman said he would be more interested with these games, that is until district 12 came on screen. He saw Effie speak to the crowed, he saw her pick a name, he saw her read it out. He heard Cream's name. His initial reaction was anger and anguish, how could a she, of all the people be picked out. But he wasn't prepared for what came next. He saw Cream walk up to the stage, he saw Amy come out of the crowd, he saw her scream,

He saw her volunteer.

He heard her say those crucial words "I volunteer as tribute!" His body was full of anger, fear and delusion.

He then saw Cream and Amy rush over to each other, He saw Knuckles pick up Cream and take her away. He saw Amy walk on stage. She said her name and Effie congratulated her. Madness boiled within him, He then saw the entire square to the crucial sign of the districts, the sign of hope.

Another name was called out, one he didn't recognize. Amy and the boy then shook hands and walked off the stage and the screen turned off.

Sonic stared at the screen in anger and hate. Angry at the games, hate for Eggman, this was all his fault he knew it. Sonic swore he could hear the faint, distant laugh of Eggman.

Sonic then screamed at the cell walls, hoping to get a reaction, but alas nothing. He violently shook his chains, hoping they would break free, but still nothing. He was just left there, one his own in the silence.

The girl he loved most of all, the girl he promised he would never forget was now sent to her own death. But what angered him most is that he couldn't help her, he couldn't run over, take Amy in his arms and run off. He couldn't do anything.

This time Amy was on her own.


	4. Chapter 3, Soulles Society

**Chapter 3, Soulless Society**

Amy, Ari and Effie boarded the train, As soon as Amy set foot in the carriage she was taken back at the immense richness of it. There were tables or fruit and drink, the furniture was coated in velvet. It was all so beautiful in a sense. Once the train started to move, Effie sat down Amy and Ari and started talking to them.

"300 miles per hour and you can barely feel a thing, I think its a wonderful opportunity that even though you're here and even though its just for a little while you get to enjoy all of this" Effie says as she extends her hands to shoe just what she meant. Unfortunately for her she got no response from Amy or Ari. Feeling that she wouldn't get a response from any of them Effie quickly said

"I'm going to go get Haymitch, he's probably in the bar car"and with that Effie promptly left, leaving Amy and Ari alone, with the simple sound of the train filling the silence. Amy was lost in her thoughts, he thought about Cream and how devastated she would be if she lost, she thought about Rouge and Tails and how they are coping at this very moment, she also thought about Shadow and what he went through when he was in the 5th annual Hunger Games. She thought about Knuckles and how he meant so much to her and how he must be feeling. And finally she thought about Sonic, he one and only love. She thought back to that day and wondered if was still alive.

Finally, after an agonizing long silence for Ari, he asked Amy

"Have you ever met him?" Amy snapped out of her thoughts and looked at him in confusion "Haymitch?" Amy just looked to the ground and tried to block out the world, Ari just sighed and said

"Look he is our mentor" Amy just continued looking solemnly at the floor, she didn't want to talk, especially at someone she had only met.

"Look if you don't want to talk that's fine I understand I just see anything wrong with getting a little bit of help" Ari says in irritation. Amy then looks towards him, she's now able to have a closer look at him. He was a tall kid, with dirty blond hair and greasy skin. He didn't look like much of a threat when it came down to it.

Suddenly the doors of the carriage open and Haymitch comes in, he has a glass in his hand and his clothes are a wreck, no doubt he was drinking and now was hungover.

"Congratulations" he says sarcastically, he then walked over the bar table and poured himself another drink, he then looked into the ice box, only to find no ice "Where's the ice?" he asked with a slur

"I don't know" Ari replied quietly, Haymitch slammed the lid of the ice box and took the whole bottle of alcohol, he then proceeded to sit down in front of the two tributes. As soon as he sat down Ari sat up and asked

"Okay then when do we start, how do we win the games" Haymitch became a little startled that he was so eager

"Whoa, usually none of you are so eager" Haymitch says as he waves his drink around

"Well yes, I want to know how to win, you're our mentor, you're meant to give us advice"

"Okay, advice, hmm, embrace the probability of your immanent death" Haymitch replied "And know deep in your heart that there's nothing I can do to save you"

"Then what are you here for?!" Amy asked in anger, having finally spoke up

"For the refreshments" replied Haymitch. Amy looked at him in disgust.

"Alright I think you've had enough of that" Ari says as he reaches over to take away Haymitch's drink but Haymitch quickly stopped him by pushing him back with his foot

"Careful, you nearly spilled my drink" Haymitch says, he then lets go of Ari and gets up from his seat "I think I'll go finish this in my room" He then leaves the carriage and was out of sight. Ari then gets up and says

"I'm going to go talk to him" Ari then leaves and Amy was left in the carriage. Alone.

Amy sat in the carriage for a while, she had found some recordings of the the previous Hunger Games. She picked up one and started watching, she had picked Shadow's game, she watched his every move, trying to figure out hoe to win, seeing as Haymitch wouldn't be any help. But after a while she realized she didn't want to be reminded of what was yet to come. She quickly turned off the TV and left the carriage. Amy walked along the train when she came across a room, she looked in and saw that Ari, Effie and Haymitch were all inside. Amy then slowly opened the door and found that Ari and Haymitch were talking, Haymitch was busy eating while Ari fired questions at him.

"Oh that's a good way to get killed" Haymitch said, not having heard the entire conversation Amy asks

"What's a good way to get killed?" Ari looks up and says

"Oh we were just discussing how to find shelter"

"Which would come in handy if you were in fact still alive" replied Haymitch. Amy walked up to the table

"How do you find shelter?" she asks as she fits down.

"Pass the jam sweetheart" Haymitch asks with a groan

"How do you find shelter?" Amy asks more sternly and aggressively

"listen sweetheart I've only just woke up" replied Haymitch, he then reaches over to grab the jam when Amy stops him by slamming a knife into the table

"THAT IS MAHOGANY!" cries Effie, Haymitch then yanks the knife out of the table and says

"Look at you, you killed a place mat" He uses the knife to spread the jam onto the piece of toast "You really want to know how to stay alive, you get people to like you"Haymitch looks at Amy with a slight smirk "Oh not what you were expecting" Haymitch then continues "When your out there and you're starving or freezing, some water or even some matches can mean the difference between life and death and those things come from sponsors, and to get sponsors you have to get people to like you and so far sweetheart you're not doing a very good job" Suddenly Ari gets up and moves towards the window

"There it is" he says, outside Eggtropolis was in full view, it was huge, beyond huge even. Suddenly the window was blocked and the train entered a tunnel, the train soon came out and arrived at a station, at the station, a crowd of people awaited their arrival, Ari started waving at them

"Come on, Come on" Ari says, but Amy refuses, she remained silent. Haymitch then turns to Amy and says

"You better keep this knife, he knows what he's doing"

Once the two were let out of the train, they were lead into a building were they would be cleaned and dressed. Amy was now lying on a cold metal bed as two people soaked her with water. The feeling was quite uncomfortable for Amy. Once she was clean she was lead into another room where she was meant to lie down once again. The bed was cold and metallic, and so was the room. The room had dark silver walls and only one bright light. This made Amy feel very uncomfortable, it made her feel as of she was some sort of experiment, in a way she was, she was an experiment of the capitol, Eggtropolis, they would form her, create her into the perfect killing machine. After a moment in the silence Amy heard the doors of the room open and from those doors emerged a new face. Amy sat up and looked at the new visitor, he had a kind face, but she couldn't trust him, sh couldn't trust anyone. He was dark skinned and had dark eyes

"That was very brave, with your friend, my name is Cinna" Amy looked down

"Most people just congratulate me" she muttered

"Well I don't see the point of that" he replied "Now tonight we have the parade, their going to show you off the world, now each tribute has to dress like their district"

"Yeah well we just go as coal miners" says Amy

"Yeah, well I don't want to do that" replies Cinna, he then takes a hold of one of Amy's bangs and flicks it behind her "I just don't think that someone so brave should be put in some stupid costume"

"I hope not" Amy replies quietly. A moment of silence past between the two

"You must think we are all awful, arrogant people" said Cinna, breaking the silence "I don't blame you if you do" But he was right, why wouldn't she think that, all of them are products of the war, and she hated them all.

Soon she and Ari were dressed in black outfits and ready to board the chariots, but there was something different about their outfits, something that would truly make them stand out. They were coated in a special material that would set a light when in contact with a strong heat source, but the outfit would stop Ari and Amy from getting hurt. The two were set a light and then they boarded the chariots. One by one the tributes left on their chariots and onto the main palace gateway. The palace was surrounded by fans but more importantly the sponsors could see the tributes for the first time, this moment could not be over looked. The crowed roared at each coming district until finally it was Amy and Ari's turn to enter. Their costumes were on fire, they were truly spectacular. A gasp was heard from the crowd. Ari then grabbed Amy's hand but Amy took her hand away

"Come on, they'll love it" said Ari, Amy looked at him in doubt and confusion but in the end agreed, the two held hands and lifted them in the air. The crowd roared in amazement, nothing like this had ever been seen before. Soon their chariot joined the others at the end of the palace gateway. The end was facing a large building where the game makers sat, but more importantly Eggman was, along with Nega and Scourge. Once all the chariots had arrived Eggman stood up and spoke to the tributes

"Welcome, Tributes we welcome you" he said, his voice sounded like venom to Amy, she hated him with a passion "We salute you for your courage, and your sacrifice" at that moment everyone in the palace cheered, as if he was a god or a hero, and this disgusted Amy "And now, Happy Hunger Games and may the odds be ever in your favour" More cheers were heard, Amy looked up at him in hate, Eggman looked down at the tributes, but more importantly he looked at Amy, a flash of hate and anger past between the two. They knew of what happened, they knew about the war, they knew about that day. Suddenly the chariot moved and Amy was taken away. From that moment she knew she would die, as Eggman would make sure of it.

The two boarded off the chariot and were immediately greeted by Effie, Haymitch and Cinna

"That was amazing" said Cinna with pride

"Ah, we are all anything people are going to be talking about!" cried Effie with joy

"So brave, so brave" said Haymitch

"Are you sure you should be near an open flame?" said Amy with a hint of mockery

"Fake flame?" Haymitch defended "Are you sure you should..." Haymitch stopped talking, he glanced over at the other tributes especially those from district two, they stared at Amy and Ari with hate and jealousy "Let's go upstairs" said Haymitch. The five went over to a lift and then went up to their floor, each district had their own floor, but since Amy and Ari were from 12, they were right at the top. Once they arrived, a gasp left Amy's lips

"I know, I know" cried Effie. The place truly was beautiful, everything was so modern, so classy at the same time. There was a main seating area that looked over Eggtropolis, then just next to that there was an elevated dining room with a large black table, big enough of sit 12 people.

"Now we don't you two clean up and get ready for dinner?" said Effie. Amy walked over to the corridor and went into her room. Another gasp left her lips, this room was far grander than her room back in district 12, her bed was big enough to hold four people. It was incredibly silky as well. The room was a dark silver colour with green furniture and a huge window took over most of a wall. Next to Amy's bed were two bedside tables, on one of the tables was a strange device. Amy went over to the device and held it in her hand, with the over hand she gently glided her finger across. Suddenly the scene of the window changed, it changed from a skyline to the center of Eggtropolis. Amy glided her finger again across the device, once again it changed, this time it was a desert. Amy changed it one more time, but this time, this one caught her eye. It was a forest, in the heart of a forest. Amy walked up to it and a flood of memories came to her mind, but one was more powerful than the rest. She saw her running through the woods, she then saw her friends running with her, they were laughing, smiling. She then saw Sonic, he grabbed her hand and the two ran together, their friends ran along side them. These were the days before the war, when everything was better, everything was happy. They were free.

Amy then switched back the scene in anger, this was not the time to have flash backs. Right now she needed to eat and get some rest.

As tomorrow was training.


	5. Chapter 4, Training Part 1

**Chapter 4, Training Part 1**

The day started bright and early for Amy. She woke up with a groan. Once she realized where she was she let out a sigh, she thought it was just a dream, a terrible nightmare that she couldn't wake up from. But alas it was the truth, the painful truth.

Amy grudgingly got out of bed and walked over to the on suite bathroom she had. She walked in and turned on the shower. For a while she just stood in the flowing water. Thinking of nothing in particular. Mainly staring out into space. Just staring. Finally Amy got out of the shower and got dressed, she had to wear the special clothing the tributes had to wear. It was a tight black T-shirt with the number 12 on the back and a pair of tight black trousers. Once Amy was dressed she walked out of her room and out into the main suite. She turned to the dining room to find that the table was already laid out with breakfast foods. Amy walked over to the table and asked to maid standing near it if she could start eating, the maid only nodded in response. Amy then sat down and started gorging herself on food. It had been a long time since she had eaten this well. Back in district 12 food was rough and ready, nothing this luxurious. Soon after she decided to take a few bread rolls and some hot chocolate and sit by the window and watch the sunrise. As she sat by the window she wondered what would Knuckles and Cream be doing right now. She sighed, she just hoped that they were okay.

Suddenly, the sound of a door opening could be heard. Amy turned around to see Ari come into the main dining hall. He saw Amy and smiled slightly, he then went over to the table and loaded up a plate full of food. He then descended down to join Amy on the window sill. A silence past through the two until Ari broke it

"Food's good?" he said while he ate, Amy looked at him

"I guess" she muttered, Ari continued to eat, the two were plunged into another silence, until the sound of a door opening could be heard once again, Amy and Ari turned to find Haymitch emerge from his room. He notices the two and says

"Ah, you're up" He then walks over to the table of food, before eating he turns to the tributes and says

"Good luck on training by the way" Haymitch then turns back and starts eating. Amy turned back, she looked out of the window, she wondered, what would the training day bring her?

Later on that day Amy and Ari went over to the training arena. Before training began all the tributes stood in a semi circle around a small step where the main training mentor would soon be. While they waited, it gave Amy a good look at the other tributes, there were the career tributes from district 1,2 and 4. All of them looked tough and rearing to go. There was one boy in particular who seemed to have an interest in her, but not in the good way. As if she would be his first target. He had short blonde hair and was quite tall. Not wanting to cause an argument with him, Amy quicker looked away and examined the rest of the tributes. Not many really caught her eye, or that she thought would be much of a threat. There was a smallish, black hedgehog with purple eyes from district 10. There was also a short, red haired girl from district 5. There was a tall, lean boy from district 11, he was dark skinned and actually looked like quite a threat, next to him was a small dark skinned girl, she had black frizzy hair. She looked kind and sweet. It almost broke Amy's heart to find her here.

Finally the main training mentor arrived on the step, she greeted everyone and said

"In three weeks 23 of you will be dead, one of you will be alive, who what is depends on how well you perform and pay attention especially to what I'm about to tell you, first no fighting with the other tributes you'll have plenty of time for that in the arena" the mentor chuckles and then continues "there are four compulsory exercises the rest will be individual training, my advice is don't ignore the survival skill, everyone wants to grab a sword but most of you will die from natural causes, ten percent from infection, 20 percent from dehydration, exposure can kill as easily as a knife"

Once she was done talking everyone was dismissed and sent to the first exercise. This was one was all about physical endurance and strength. They were made to climb along metal blocks. Then they were made to run around obstacles, dodging incoming fire.

Next was weapons, each tribute was given a turn to try out different weapons ranging from swords to bows and arrows. Amy resisted trying the bow and arrow. She didn't want to show the game makers her talent just yet. But she did try her turn at the axe. Amy stood in front of some targets and threw the axe at one of them. Surprisingly she hit the target not too far off the bulls eye. If she couldn't reach a bow, an axe will do just as good. Just like Shadow said. Just as she was about to throw the next one, Amy turned to watch the boy from district 2 start a fight with a boy from district 7.

"Where's my knife!?" he yelled

"I didn't take your knife!" The boy from district 7 yelled in defense

"You took my knife!"

"I didn't touch your knife!"

Soon some peacekeepers came to break up the argument. Amy looked up to find the little girl from district 11 holding the knife in her hands, she was up high in the apparatus and she was smiling with glee. Amy chuckled slightly. It was incredibly cunning of her. Maybe she did stand a chance after all.

That night, Ari, Amy, Haymitch and Effie sat at the dinner table and discussed the events during training. Haymitch was not surprised to find that one of the careers started a fight

"He's a career, no surprise there, you know what that is?" he asked the tributes

"From district 1" Amy said

"And 2 and 4" added Ari

"They're trained in a special academy until their 24 and volunteer, by that point their pretty lethal" said Haymitch

"But they don't receive any special treatment, in fact I don't think they let them have dessert and you can" said Effie, Amy and Ari just looked at Effie in annoyance

"So how good are they?" asked Ari

"Well they won it almost every year" replied Haymitch

"Almost" said Effie, trying not to break Amy's and Ari's hope

"But they can be arrogant, and arrogance can be a big problem" said Haymitch as he looked in Amy's direction "I hear you can shoot"

"I'm alright" Amy mutters in response

"She's better then alright" says Ari "My father buys her squirrels, he says she hits them right in the eye, every time" Amy glared at Ari, she didn't know what he was doing or why he was doing it, but she didn't like it.

"If anyone stands a chance of winning its you" says Ari "You can hunt, you're skilled, not to mention you were in the..." Ari pauses as he doesn't want to continue his sentence. But Amy knew what he was going to say. Unfortunately so did Haymitch and Effie.

He was talking about the war.

Amy was on the front line. As was most of her friends. Even Sonic. She remembered it, the guns, the losses, the fire and smoke. The faces of her comrades dying in the ash.

Then the day came. That day which she could never forget.

Amy felt her heart race. She was having trouble keeping her dinner down.

"I'm done" she says blankly, Amy then leaves the table without another word. There was no point discussing her thoughts or even discussing tactics. She needed to clear her head. She couldn't afford a break down. Not now. Not ever. She had to be fit, physically and mentally. She had to concentrate.

She had to win.


	6. Chapter 5, An Ember Emerges

**Chapter 5, An Ember Emerges**

The next day was survival and more weapons training. Amy sat by a synthetic tree, she was trying to make fire and create snares for easy prey. As Amy was in mid practice, she heard the distinctive sound of a spear hurtling through the air. Amy turned around to see the boy from district two throw a spear at astronomical speed. The spear then hit a dummy right in the center, where the heart would be. Amy's eyes widened in awe and fear.

She suddenly realized just who she was up against; Killers, trained killers.

But Amy tried to ignore that fact and continued making snares. As she was in the middle of making a complicated, poison snare. She was disrupted by a voice

"How did you make those?" Amy looked up in frustration to find Ari standing there, position over to the other snares. Amy looked at them and then back at him

"Oh, just, well..." Amy stammered as she didn't quite know how to explain it, but Ari interrupted her thoughts by saying "Hey, I think you have a shadow" Ari motioned behind her, Amy turned her head to find the young girl from district 11 hiding behind a column. Amy smiled in response. The girl seemed sweet, kind-hearted. It was heart breaking for her to be here.

Soon all the tributes were made to practice the art of knife throwing, or so they call it. Amy watched as the career tributes threw the knives exceptionally well. Especially the girl from district two, who hit the dummy's heart every time, without fail. It frightening, yet astounding at the same time.

Later on that day, Amy noticed the career tributes smirking and laughing at Ari. Not wanting him to be seen as weak, Amy walked over to him and said

"Throw that barrel thing over there" she motioned over to a large, black barrel with a handle. Ari looked at Amy with confusion

"Why?" he asked

"Those guys are looking at you like your meat, throw it" she replied, Ari looked at her for a minute but followed her instruction, he walked over to the barrel, picked it up, and in a great movement he threw it a good 15 meters away from him. Once the barrel hit the floor the careers stumbled back in fear/ Amy smiled, now district 12 would no longer be seen as weak.

That evening at dinner, Haymitch discussed how the day would go tomorrow, as tomorrow was important, it was individual assessments.

"Now tomorrow, their going to bring you in, one by one, and evaluate you, this is important because higher ratings mean sponsors, this is the time to show them everything" he says, he then looks at Amy and says

"Amy, there will be a bow, make sure you use it" he then looked at Ari and said

"Ari, make sure you show your strength, they'll start with district one so the two of you will go last" Haymitch then stopped for a minute, he sighed and said

"I don't know how else to put this, make sure they remember you"

Early the next day, Ari and Amy left the penthouse and went down into the second training center. As they were meant to go last, they two were made to wait with the other tributes in a separate room until each one of them were called out to start the assessment.

Throughout the entire time waiting, Amy became more and more nervous, and more and more impatient. Finally, after about four agonizingly long hours, Amy's name was called out of the robotic speaker.

"Amy Rose" it said like a cold metal being. Amy's head perked up, she then got up and headed to the door that lead into the training center. Just as she was about to go in, Ari said

"Hey Amy" Amy turned her head to face him "Shoot straight" Ari smiled, Amy briefly and nodded in response.

As Amy walked towards the gate like door, it opened to let her through. Once Amy was inside the training center the door, loudly, closed behind her.

As she walked in, Amy saw the bow in front of her, as if it was just waiting for her. Amy walked up to the bow and held it in her hand, the bow felt light and strong. Built perfectly for hunting. Or killing.

She then picked up and arrow and began walking over to the target, but just as she started walking she noticed none of the game makers had actually noticed she had walked in. So Amy turned towards them and said

:Amy Rose, district twelve" the game makers then turned towards her and motioned for her to start. Amy walked over to the target, standing a good 25 meters away from it. She loaded her bow and drew it straight, she paused for a minute to aim the arrow, and then she let go.

Unfortunately however, the arrow missed the dummy completely. Amy was shocked, she could go a bit faulty sometimes, but never this bad! And now, of all times! The Game makers only laughed at her effort. Wanting to show the game makers just what she could do, Amy reloaded her bow, she went back to the target, stood straight and pulled the bow.

Amy paused, she breathed carefully, she blocked out all the noise around her. Once she had aimed and was calm, she let go of the bow. The arrow shot through the air at an amazing speed, and this time, it hit the dummy directly in the heart, not a little a bit above, not a little bit below. It was dead on the target. No faults.

Amy turned to the game makers to see what their reaction was. But to her disappointment and disgust, the game makers did not see the shot, in fact they were more interested in a pig that her performance. Out of utter frustration and anger, Amy reloaded her arrow and aimed it towards the apple of the pig, she then fired the arrow and the arrow hit the apple and ended up on the wall. The game makers turned back to Amy in shock. Amy bowed down and said sarcastically

"Thank you for your consideration" With that, Amy put back the bow and walked out of the training center.

Later that day, back in the penthouse, Effie was not happy at all with her actions

"Are you crazy?!" she asked with annoyance and anger

"I just got mad" Amy simply replied

"You realize your actions reflect badly on all of us, not just you!" replied Effie

"They just want a good show, it's fine" said Cinna

"How about it's just bad manners Cinna, how about that?!" Effie spat, suddenly, Haymitch comes in to the living room, with a surprising smile on his face.

"Well finally!" Effie said to him "I hope you noticed we have a serious situation!" Haymitch just ignores her and looks at Amy, he smiles at her and gives her a thumbs up

"Nice shooting sweetheart" he says, Haymitch then bursts into laughter and sits down on one of the chairs

"What did they do, when you shot the arrow?" he asked Amy

"Well they looked pretty startled" Amy replied

"Oh" Haymitch replies as he laughs again "Now what did you say, thanks for your..."

"Thanks for your consideration" Amy mutters with a smile

"Genius!" Haymitch says

"I don't think we're going to find this funny if the game makers decide to take it out..." Effie says

"On who?" Haymitch says as he interrupts her "On her, on him?" he says as he points to Amy and Ari "I think they already have, loosen your corset have a drink" he says to her, he then looks at Amy and says

"I would have given to see it"

Soon they turned on the TV to see what the scores were for the assessments. On the screen the presenter of the Hunger Games, _Caesar_ Flickerman, would be the one to announce the scored of each tribute.

"As you know the tributes were rated on a score from one to twelve after three days of evaluation" Caesar said, he went on to explain how they were evaluated and then he started announcing the scores, which everyone were impatient to hear

"From district one, Marvel with a score of nine"

"Cato with a score of ten"

"Clove with a score of ten"

"District four..."

"From district five..."

"District seven..."

"District ten..."

"District eleven.." Amy noticed that the tall, dark skinned boy from district eleven got a score of nine which was surprising for his district

"Rue with a score of seven" Amy was even more surprised with her score, she didn't know what she did but it must have been impressive.  
"From district twelve, Ari with a score of eight" Ari sighed with relief, Effie gasped with joy

"Well done" she said "We can work with that" But next it was Amy's score, nearly everyone in the room was nervous and impatient

"And finally from district twelve, Amy, with a score of..." Caesar paused to look at him card, his eyes ever so slightly widened "Eleven" he said. Suddenly a cry of joy was heard from Effie

"Oh my goodness!" she cried

"Congratulations" Ari gasped

"I thought they hated me!?" Amy said

"They must have liked your guts" replied Haymitch

"To Amy Rose!" said Cinna as he raised a glass "The girl on fire!"

Deep in the dungeons of Eggman's palace, Sonic the Hedgehog watched the TV to make sure Amy was okay. He watched the arrival of the tributes and the chariot ride. Seeing Amy and that boy hold hands made is blood boil. No one could lay a hand on Amy, no one except him! He then saw the training, but more importantly the individual training. He saw how Amy perfectly shot that arrow, and how the game makers paid no attention. How dare they, he thought. He saw Amy shoot the pigs apple out of frustration and anger, and her sarcasm. Nothing's changed there, he thought. But like Haymitch he found just as funny.

Finally he saw the scores. When it finally came to Amy's score, his heart stopped. He was impatient to know.

It was an eleven! An eleven! He thought. This was great, this was amazing! Amy had a chance of winning! No, she was going to win!

And Sonic knew why.

Because Amy had hope, He had hope. And even though he didn't know it. Knuckles, Cream, Shadow, Rouge and Tails had hope as well. As well as Haymitch, Effie and Cinna. Even Ari.

And hope, as we all know, is far greater than fear.


	7. Chapter 6, The Reality Hits

**Chapter 6, The Reality Hits**

Today was the last day in the capitol for the tributes. The training was over, now it was time for the live interviews. These interviews would be held with the main presenter of the Hunger Games, Caesar Flickerman. They would also be broadcasted live, all over the panem.

That morning, after breakfast, Amy went to greet Cinna, who planned out her outfit for the interviews. It took approximately two hours for Amy to be dressed and made up in time for her interview with Caesar. Now Amy stood on a small platform with three mirrors surrounding her and a couch to her left, where Cinna sat. Amy wore a long, red dress with a single strap. The dress was wavy at the bottom and tighter at the top. Her shoulder was sprinkled with glitter and she had glittery eye make up and pale pink lipstick. She was quite a sight to behold.

"You look amazing" said Cinna

"I don't feel amazing" said Amy as she turned round to face Cinna

"Don't you know how beautiful you look?" ask Cinna with a smile

"No, and I don't know how to make people like me? How do you make people like you?!" cried out in frustration

"You made me like you" Cinna pointed out

"That's different, I wasn't trying" muttered Amy

"Exactly" said Cinna, he then got up and walked over to Amy "Just be yourself, I'll be there the whole time and pretend you're talking to me, alright?" Cinna then takes one of Amy's bangs and puts it behind her ear.

"Okay" Amy muttered.

The interviews had now started and like always, District One came first, followed by District Two, and so on and so forth.

On stage, the lights flicked on and Caesar greeted everyone with a shimmering smile and a laugh. He started talking about the Hunger Games and about the tributes and before long the first tribute came on stage.

"Now let's see if she does indeed shine, lets give a warm welcome to Glimmer!" exclaimed Caesar, at that moment the girl from district one, called Glimmer arrived on the stage and sat on the designated seat next to Caesar

"Glimmer, are you prepared?" asked Caesar

"Yes, Caesar I am very prepared!" replied Glimmer with a confident smile.

As the interview drew on and more people came to the stage, Amy could feel the nerves getting to her.

"Let's give a big round of applause for Marvel..."

"Welcome Clove..."

"It's an honor to be representing my district..."

"You a fighter?"

"I'm prepared, vicious, raring to go..."

"Cato!"

"I can prepare myself for the situation..."

"Thank you, lovely to see you..."

Finally the last person from district eleven was made to get ready to go on stage, as Amy was in a daze, her attention quickly snapped back as she heard the mention of Rue

"Rue, you climb trees, you're pretty quick and are you a hunter an adapter..."

Finally it was Amy's turn to board the stage, she waited back stage, waiting fro Caesar to call her up

"From District Twelve! District Twelve, you know her as the girl on fire!" cried Caesar, a loud cry was heard from the audience "Well, we know her as Amy Rose!" at that moment Amy walked onto the stage, as soon as she was on her hearing stopped, she just stared at the amount of people there was staring back at her. She felt her stomach turn, as if she could be sick. She sat down on the seat, her palms sweating and shaking.

A murmur was heard from Caesar, then quiet. Amy turned to him and said

"What?" a laugh as heard from the audience

"I think someone's a little nervous" said Caesar with a slight laugh "I said that was quite an entrance you made at the tribute parade, want to tell us more about it?"

"Well I was just hoping I wouldn't burn to death" said Amy, thinking of nothing else to say, another laugh was heard from the audience

"When you came out on that chariot, I have to say my heart stopped, did any of you experience this as well?" he asked the audience,Amy turned to him and smiled

"So did mine" she said,

"Now tell me about the flames, are they real?" Amy paused for a minute

"Yes" she finally said, she then turned to the audience, she saw Cinna in the audience, he gave her a slight nod "In fact I'm wearing them today" she said "Would you like to see?"

"Wait, wait, wait, is it safe?" asked Cinna, Amy smiled

"Yes" she said.

"What do you think folks?" he asked the audience, a loud cry was heard as response. So Amy got up and stood in front of them. She then spun in front of them, causing her dress to burst into flames. A loud cry was heard from the audience. They were in awe, and so was Caesar.

Amy spun at least 15 times before she had to stop due to dizziness. She then sat back down on the seat with a smile, he dress was now no longer in flames.

"That was something, that was truly something!" said Caesar, then a small silence swept through the stage until he said

"I have one more question for you" he then sat up on the chair and faced her "It's about your friend" he took her hand and patted it gently, "We were all very moved, I think, when you volunteered for her at the reaping, did she come and say good bye to you?"

"Yes" Amy said, barely above a whisper

"And what did you say to her, in the end?" he asked

"I told her that I would try to win, that I would try to win for her" Amy said

"of course you did, and try you will" he said, he then kissed her hand and then turned to face the audience "Ladies and Gentlemen from district twelve, Amy Rose the girl of fire!"

And with that Amy left the stage, her eyes nearly forming tears.

Amy was immediately greeted by Effie, who said

"That was incredible, well done" the two walked down the hall and as they turned a corner, they were greeted by Haymitch

"Nice job sweetheart" he said while clapping

"Thank you" said Amy

"Nice dress too" he said, he then turned to Effie and said "Not yours"

The three then watched Ari's interview start and finish, his interview was no different to the rest, once his interview was over, the four went back up to the penthouse and had dinner.

As soon as dinner was over, Ari and Amy went to bed.

But try as she could Amy couldn't sleep, finally having run out of options Amy left her room and went upstairs to the roof top garden. It was quite pretty in the night, almost peaceful. As Amy searched for a place to sit she found someone sitting on the edge, looking out over the city, she immediately knew that that person was Ari. Amy walked up to him and sat down opposite him

"Hey" she said

"Hi" he replied

"Can't sleep?"

"Course not" he replied, out in the distance, the noise of the capitols residents could be heard screaming and cheering for the oncoming games  
"Listen to them" said Amy in disgust

"Yeah, I know" replied Ari, he shook his head ever so slightly and said "I just don't want them to change me" Amy looked at Ari in confusion

"How would they change you?"

"I don't know" he replied as he looked at her

"Like turn me into something I'm not, I don't want to be another piece in their game"

_His game_ Amy thought

"You mean you won't kill anyone?" Amy asked

"No, I mean, yeah, I sure I would, just like anybody else when the time came but... I just keep wishing I could think of a way to show them that they don't own me... If I'm going to die, I want to still be me" A silence past through the two

"I just can't afford to think like that" says Amy "I have Cream and the others"

"Yeah, I know" Ari then sighs "Guess I'll see you tomorrow"

"See you tomorrow" Amy replies with a slight smile. The two then left the roof top garden and went back into the penthouse, they needed to sleep.

Tomorrow was the games.

The next day arrived, and the tributes had to broad a plane to go to the arena. Haymitch took Amy in the elevator up to the aircraft, he was giving her some last minute advice

"There will be all kinds of stuff right in front, right in the mouth of the cornucopia, there will even be a bow there, don't go for it"said Haymitch

"Why not?" asked Amy in shock and irritation

"It's a blood bath, their trying to pull you in, that's not your game, you turn, run, find high ground, find water, water's your new best friend" Amy nodded as she took it all in "Don't step off that paddle stone early or they'll blow you sky high"

Suddenly the lift stopped and the doors opened, revealing the aircraft. The two walked out into the sun, just before Amy boarded, Haymitch said

"Amy, you can do this" he smiled at her and patted her gently on the shoulder

"Thanks" she said with a slight smile, Amy then left Haymitch and boarded the plane.

Once everyone was seated in the plane a woman came round and implanted something into the arms of all the tributes

"Give me your arm" she said to Amy, Amy gave her arm and asked

"What's is that" Once the object was planted inside her arm the woman responded

"Your tracker"

Suddenly the plane's light dimmed and began to move,

They were on their way to the arena.

Once they had arrived, Amy was lead into the underground section of the arena, where the tubes and the stylers awaited. Once Amy arrived she walked into the arms of Cinna, the two hugged for a while before they parted. Cinna then took a coat of a hanger and placed it on Amy. Once the coat was on Amy he opened up a part of it that revealed the Chaos emerald pin that Knuckles gave her

"Thank you" she gasped, Cinna smiled and placed a finger on his lips, as if to say don't tell.

"Thirty seconds" said a robotic voice over an announcer, Amy looked at the tube, she started shaking, the nerves had finally got to her. It was all too real.

He then zipped up the fleecy bit of Amy's coat and placed a hand on her cheek,

"I'm not allowed to bet, but if I could, I'd bet on you"

"Twenty Seconds"

Amy started walking over to the tube, she couldn't breath properly. Her heart was beating ferociously fast

"Ten seconds"

Once Amy was in the tube, the door sealed behind her, once it was sealed Amy turned back in fear, he eyes opened wide. It was too late now.

A small nod came from Cinna and pod began to rise.

Once the tube had fully risen, Amy looked around her surroundings, it was a forest.

_Thank goodness!_ She thought.

Amy looked at the other tributes, all were out. Some were mobians, some not.

Suddenly the voice of Caesar Flickerman was heard all around

"Ladies and Gentlemen, let the ninth annual Hunger Games, Begin!"


	8. Chapter 7, Survival is Key

**Chapter 7, Survival is Key**

Sixty seconds...

That's how long they had to wait on those paddle stones until to gong went off. Amy looked at the goods held within the cornucopia, the further in you go, the better the goods, in front of her was a sheet of plastic and some backpacks, the nearer the cornucopia there was weapons and supplies. And there, a couple of feet from the mouth of the cornucopia, was a bow and a a sack full of arrows

_It's there for me, that was meant for me_ Amy thought.

Fifty seconds...

Back in district twelve, Cream, Rouge, Tails and Shadow watched the countdown take place. Rouge took a hold of Cream's hand and held it tightly, so did Tails. Shadow stood by the door, his fist clenched in fear, anger and worry. he leaned against the door frame not wanting to watch but knowing he should, to make sure she was okay, that would she survive the blood bath of the cornucopia.

"You can do it Amy" he muttered under his breath "We believe in you"

Forty seconds...

Whereas Knuckles, he stayed out in the fields, he did not want to watch the countdown, he knew that Amy would make it out alive, he knew that she will survive. She has to.

"I believe in you Amy" he muttered "I know you'll survive"

Thirty seconds...

In the Eggtropolis, the people of the capitol cheered as the countdown descended. Haymitch stood in the penthouse, he looked over the crowd in disgust, how could they cheer for such a thing?! Although he didn't say it, he truly believed in the two tributes. For once, he truly believed one of his tributes could win.

Twenty seconds...

In the Eggtropolis, deep in Eggman's base, Sonic watched the countdown. His fists clenched in anger and fear. A small tear rolled down his cheek, oh how he wanted to break free, he wanted to run over there, take her in his arms and run away with her and never return. But try as he could, the chains would not give way, either he was getting weaker, or the chains became stronger. But that wasn't an important matter. What mattered was Amy.

"I know you can do it Amy" he mutters "I believe in you, I love you"

Ten seconds...

Amy's heart raced, her palms became sweaty

Nine...

She looked over at the other tributes, some began getting ready, others remained frozen in fear

Eight...

She looked over to Ari, he looked at her, a small shake came from his head, as if to say No, don't you dare!

Seven...

Amy looked back at the front, she too started to get ready to run.

Six...

She looked over at the bow, _That is mine, I'm going to get it! _She thought

Five...

Back in district twelve, Cream tightened her grip on Rouge and Tails, she hoped, that Amy would survive. She felt her fear.

Four...

Amy thought, how could she get to water, where would she go from here? She looked around her, there was some high ground a good couple of kilometers from here, if she ran towards there today, she could make it there by nightfall.

Three...

Amy was lost in her thoughts, she didn't know how to tackle the games, her priority, stay away from the tributes, oh and always be armed, that's right, always be armed, that's what Shadow told her.

Two...

Amy looked back at the cornucopia, when she did, she realized it was the last second! Quickly she got into position, ready to run.

One...

The gong went off and everyone ran off their paddle stone, Ari ran right into the woods, not wanting to take any risks. Amy ran into the cornucopia, not too far in but still in it. She looked around her, many of the careers had already made it into the cornucopia, killing anyone that crossed their path. It was all to horrific.

Not wanting to leave empty handed, Amy noticed a backpack, with a small axe not too far from it. Amy immediately ran towards them, she ran as fast as she could, she had just managed to grab the backpack when she tripped, she quickly looked behind her to find a black hedgehog had been killed behind her, she looked up to find the girl from district two looking at her, ready to throw a knife directly at her. She never misses. Adrenaline rushed through Amy's body as she used the backpack as a shield, the knife got lodged in the backpack. Amy then got up, grabbed the axe that was a couple of feet next to her and ran off, she knew the girl wouldn't follow her, not with all the supplies luring her back.

_Thanks for the knife!_ Amy thought as she ran off into the woods.

Amy ran deep into the woods, she ran for a good hour, none stop, she wanted to keep as much distance from her and the remaining tributes as possible. At one point she tripped and fell down a steep ditch, but once she got back up, she continued running. Amy then altered from running to walking, but never stopping. Not once.

Finally after about three hours of walking and running, Amy stopped, she fell back on the tree trunk and took a minute to catch her breath. She then placed down her axe beside her and took off her backpack. Amy dislodged the knife from the bag, it was a good knife, two sided, one smooth side for slicing, one rough side for sawing. Amy smiled slightly and placed the blade in her pocket, she know had two means of defense. Amy then opened her back and examined the contents, there was a sleeping bag, some crackers,some beef strips, a flask that was bone dry and some matches. Amy was partially annoyed at the flask

_You could have bothered to fill it up!_ She thought in irritation.

Suddenly a loud boom was heard, it didn't startle Amy that much, she knew what it was. It was the canon to signify the death of a tribute. A few more booms are heard, twelve, that's twelve dead so far. Only thirteen of them left.

Soon night drew in and after a tasteless meal of roasted mice, Amy climbed up a tree and strapped herself in, careful she wouldn't fall out. After a couple of minutes of peace, she heard some faint rustling, she slightly turned to the source of the noise, only to find that a it was the rustling of a fire. Someone had obviously started one to keep warm. Amy sighed in irritation. She knew all to well that, that was a great way to get killed.

Soon enough she heard the loud scream of a girl and then some laughter. Then the canon. The laughter then headed her way and Amy immediately froze. She noticed it was the career tributes. They were searching for easy targets. As the laughter died down one of them said

"Are you sure she went this way?" Amy assumed that she meant her.

"Yeah, I'm sure" Amy almost fell out of the tree, that voice belonged to Ari!

"You better be!" said one of the careers, he sounded like the boy from district two.

The group then walked on and left Amy in peace. After a couple of minutes of being in shock Amy calmed down, she was about to fall asleep when the loud sound of the Eggtropolis anthem blared out to across the arena. Amy looked up, in the sky was the faces of each fallen tribute, going in numerical order. None from district one or two died, both from three and from four, which was surprising, usually the careers last the first day, the boy from five, both from six, seven and eight, the girl from ten, well actually the black hedgehog. Then that was it, the sky fell black again. That was thirteen, thirteen dead, eleven left.

Finally Amy was able to sleep, she had survived the first day of the Hunger Games.


	9. Chapter 8, Wondering in the Inferno

**Chapter 8, Wondering in the Inferno **

The next day, Amy walked on and tried to make it to high ground, all while trying to find water. Amy walked on for kilometers on end. Towards the end of the day she felt her thirst getting the best of her, she hadn't drunk since before the games. As she carried on walking, she felt her legs get weak, her muscles starting to ache, and her mouth getting increasingly dry.

Finally after about 30 minutes of more walking, her legs finally gave way, and she collapsed on the forest floor. With dehydration finally catching up to her, Amy knew her end was coming near.

_Water!_ she signaled to the cameras up in the sky _Water! _What was Haymitch playing at? Surely he had enough sponsors for some water?! Unless, he was trying to tell her something? Maybe she was nearer to water then she thought. Amy lay down her head, she remained absolutely quiet, trying to listen out for the faint sound of water. But alas, nothing. Amy sighed in desperation, she spread her arms in despair. Not knowing what else to do.

But as Amy's arm spread out, her hand touched something slimy and damp, she looked over and saw a familiar kind of plant, Amy took a closer look and to her shock and joy it was water lily! And where water lilies are, water is not too far away. Using her remaining strength, Amy got back up and followed to direction of the water lilies. Before long Amy found a small pond full of fresh water. Amy immediately dived her head into the water, refreshing her face, making sure she absorbed as much water as she could. Amy then cupped her hands and started drinking, the taste and feel of the fresh water danced on her tongue. Finally she took her flask and filled it up to the brim with water. Once Amy was hydrated, she put away her flask, picked up her axe and started walking once again.

As Amy got further and further away from the tributes, the game makers got worried and annoyed, worried as things were going to slow and annoyed as Amy had not died yet. So they hatched a plan, a plan that will either kill her instantly or drive her back to the tributes.

That night Amy, strapped herself into another tree. She slept for about five hours. No deaths today.

The next day, Amy woke up suddenly to the sound of rustling. She looked around her to find, to her shock and horror, that the forest floor was on fire. Immediately, Amy unstrapped herself from the tree, her fingers scrambling about. She then jumped down and started running.

Amy ran through the woods, the fire just on her tail. The more Amy ran, the bigger the fire became. Then just as she thought there was a clearing, a fire ball came hurtling in her direction, Amy eyes widened and jumped to escape it. Once she was down, she got straight back up again and carried on running through the fire. Suddenly another fire ball rushed towards Amy, this time from her left, but thankfully, Amy narrowly escaped it from the skin of her teeth.

As Amy ran through the inferno, she noticed a small clearing, thinking this would be her ticket out of the fire, Amy ran right towards it. But fate was not on her side as a tree fell down right in front of her, causing her to stop and turn around. It was clear the game makers wanted her to go in a certain direction. Amy continued to run when another fire ball came towards her, however this one hit the corner of a rock and thus sending sparks in every direction, One large spark hit Amy's leg, causing a small but painful burn on her leg. Amy hobbled back behind the rock to examine the burn, it was small, but red and very painful. But she couldn't stay still for too long as just in front of her, a bright yellow dot came closer and closer in her direction. Another fire ball.

Amy jumped to her left to dodge it and as she did she fell down a ditch, but quickly got back up and carried on running, she ran down the hill, in the forest, the fire still roaring behind her.

Finally after another fifteen minutes of running, Amy stumbled down and fell into a lake. The cooling water smoothed her burn. But only a little bit. Little did she know that the career tributes were only a few feet away.

Suddenly Amy heard laughing, and now she knew exactly who it was, immediately Amy got out of the water and started running into the woods. The laughter followed her. They sounded like children on a treasure hunt, it was sicking.

Amy's burn caused her immense pain and knowing that she wouldn't be able to out run them, Amy found a tree and started climbing. Soon the careers caught her

"We found you girl of fire!" said the boy from district two, his name being Cato.

"Yeah, that's not going to help you!" added the girl from one, Glimmer as she was known. Amy continued climbing up the tree, but Cato quickly started climbing up as well

"Come on Cato!" the girl from two cried, Clove as she was called.

"I'm going to get you" he said, suddenly he slipped and fell back down to the ground, Amy couldn't help but to smirk.

"I'll get her myself!" said Glimmer, she the armed her bow and shot up and Amy, but missed. Cato then snatched to bow and armed it again, he shot up the arrow but once again he missed.

"Why don't you just throw the sword?" Amy said mockingly

"Let's just wait her out" said the voice of Ari "She as to come down some point or she'll starve to death" The careers looked at Ari in doubt but agreed in the end. They set up camp just below the tree and waited to Amy to come down.

Now that Amy had time, she settled down into the tree and looked at her burn, it had gotten increasingly worse since the fire. Now yellow pus started oozing out of it. Not to mention it was incredibly painful. Amy tried putting some water on to it but alas that only increased the pain, she tried squeezing some water from her hand, but her hand kept shaking as if to say no, don't!

Back in Eggtropolis, Sonic was in rage and despair, he screamed, begged that Amy would get sent some help. He hated to see her suffer.

Then as if he had heard, Haymitch, seeing her pain and suffering, managed to get the needed sponsors to the burn medicine we could sent off.

Later on that night, Amy was asleep in the tree, but was soon awakened by a little alarm coming closer and closer, Amy looked up to find a little parachute ,with a box attached, floating towards her and then get lodged in the tree, a couple of branched above her. Amy grudgingly got up and climbed up to the parachute, she opened to box to find a small container and a note. The note read

_Apply generously and stay alive – H_

Amy opened to container to find some white gel inside, Amy dabbed some on her fingers and gently rubbed it on the burn. And like magic the pain was just washed away. The gel was incredibly cooling on her skin.

Amy sighed in relief and looked up. She smiled and mouthed

"Thank you"


	10. Chapter 9, The Dreams of Pain

**Chapter 9, The Dreams of Pain**

The next day, Amy woke up to the faint sound of a whistle, Amy looks up from the tree to find the young girl from district 11, she was pointing up at something above Amy. Amy looked to what she was pointing at and saw a nest of some kind. It looked like a wasps nest, but knowing the game makers, it was most likely a nest of tracker jackers.

Tracker Jackers are a mutated version of the wasp. Back in the war, scientists under Eggman's rule, created the tracker jackers to make the rebels suffer. They were used as traps, bait and weapons. When I tracker jacker stung you, it would cause agonizing pain, powerful hallucinations and in extreme cases...

Death.

Amy looked back up at Rue, who was telling her something, she was moving her hand back and forth in a sawing motion. She then pointed at the careers below Amy. Amy looked at Rue and nodded, she knew what she should do.

Being careful to not wake up the career tributes below her, Amy climbed up the tree and up near the branch where the tracker jacker nest was. Amy then took out her knife and started sawing the branch. She couldn't rick using her axe in risk of the careers waking up. Quickly but quietly she started sawing at the branch. Making sure not to get stung by the tracker jackers. As she continued to saw the branch the tracker jackers became more and more agitated, and soon they started leaving the nest. As Amy sawed through about half of the branch, one of the tracker jackers flew out of the nest and landed on Amy's neck. Amy continued to saw the branch, while trying to get rid of the tracker jacker. Suddenly it stung her. Amy cried out in pain. But thankfully, it didn't wake the careers. Amy continued to saw away at the branch, two more tracker jackers came and stung Amy in the neck and arm. It was incredibly agonizing for her.

Finally the branch broke and fell to the floor below. Immediately, the tracker jackers broke out of the nest and started stinging the careers down below. Immediately, the careers woke up in scream and panic. Trying furiously to get the tracker jackers off them, but it was no use. Four of the group, including Ari, left the tree and ran out into the lake, in hope that, that would get rid off the tracker jackers. One couldn't get away, the girl from district one, also known as Glimmer, was surrounded by so many tracker jackers that were stinging her so furiously, that she fell to the floor in agony before she had the chance to get way. The tracker jackers stung her so painfully and so brutally that by the time they had finished with her, she was unrecognizable.

Once the tracker jackers left the base of the tree, Amy jumped down and made an attempt to run away. However just as she tried she remembered an important piece of information, an important factor that could determine whether or not she will survive the rest of the games.

Glimmer's bow and arrow.

Now that she was dead, Amy could easily take them from her and make a run for it, thus increasing her chances of survival. Amy painfully made her way back to Glimmer's body. Her vision blurring out and fading in, due to the sting of the tracker jackers. When she made it Glimmer's mutilated body, Amy plucked the bow from her cold, swollen fingers, once she had a hold of the bow, Amy took off the bag of arrows from Glimmers back. She gently counted how many there were. Her fingers shaking as she did.

Suddenly she heard a voice calling her name

"Amy, run, run, get out of here, GO!" the voice belonged Ari "Get out of here, RUN!" Amy followed his command and ran out of the area. But as she did she started to have powerful hallucinations. Firstly she saw the figure of Caesar Flickerman standing among the trees

"Not only is the venom of the tracker jacker lethal, but it can also produce powerful hallucinations" he said, and with that, Amy collapsed on the floor. But her hallucinations weren't over yet.

As she collapsed into a deep sleep, she saw horrific memories, tragic events that happened in her past. Most of them during the war for good, nine years ago. There were two memories in particular that stood out to her.

The first one was during the second year of the war, Amy was only 14 at the time. She and most of the freedom fighters, along with some military personnel were in one of Eggman's base, they were in desperate search of a chaos emerald. Once they had found it the group set off an alarm. The base would detonate in 30 seconds meaning chances of escape were slim. After a thorough search of the base, it was clear that there was no escape. Finally it was decided that Amy should use the chaos emerald to leave, as she would be needed most. Once she left after a lot of good byes and thank you's Amy teleported to the top of a hill. Nd from that hill, She watched the base explode, and everyone inside perished.

The second memory was far more vague but Amy knew what it was immediately. This was the last day of the war, the day the battle was lost. Amy was on top of a huge building that was falling to pieces, fire had engulfed most of the city. Amy was lying down, her hand over the edge of the building, she was holding on to something, someone, and she couldn't let go.

That person was Sonic.

Amy tried desperately to pull Sonic back up, if she let go, Sonic would fall to his death. Amy knew the battle had been lost, but she couldn't loose Sonic. She couldn't bear it.

"Sonic, come on! Just pull yourself up!" she cried

"Amy..." he said as he held on to her hand "Just let go"

"No! Never! I will never let you go!" she cried with fear and determination "Come on, it's only a little bit, you can pull yourself up!"

"Amy, we both know I can't" Sonic replied in anguish, some tears no flowing down his face

"No! It is!" Amy replied as she tried to pull Sonic up "I... I... I don't want to lose you!" Tears were no flowing down both of the hedgehog's faces.

"Ames..." he said, he then said something which became a blur, although Amy knew what he said, in the hallucination, she couldn't hear it. Sonic smiled sadly and then let go of Amy's hand

"NO!" Amy cried as she watched Sonic fall into the inferno below.

And with that the vision ended and Amy woke up.


	11. Chapter 10, A Proper Greeting

**Chapter 10, A Proper Greeting**

Amy woke up to find that a plaster of leaves were placed on her neck and hands, she was lying down next to a large tree. Morning had only just arrived. As Amy lifted her body up, she saw her backpack, her knife, her axe and her bow and arrow, all nest to her, leaning on the tree. Amy pup her axe in her bag and flung the bag over her shoulder. She then placed the knife in her boot, minding that it didn't cut her. She finally placed the bag of arrows on one shoulder and held the bow in her hand. She then walked away from the large tree and on into the forest.

Throughout the rest of that day Amy washed herself, being careful as she removed the stingers of the tracker jackers, and then laid out some snares in the hope that she would be able to catch her dinner, in which she succeed, soon after she bagged her meal, she carried on walking through the forest, making sure she didn't bump into any careers.

As she walked, she heard a faint rustling behind her, Amy smiled, she knew exactly who it was

"You know..." Amy said and she turned round "The careers aren't the only ones to form allies" then peeping out from behind a tree, was a small girl with fizzy black hair and dark skin

"You want me as an alley?" Rue asked with a tad of doubt

"Of course" Amy said with a smile "You manged to survive this far in the games, meaning you're smart enough to still be alive, and I can't seem to shake you away" Rue blinked at Amy, trying to decide

"You hungry?" Amy asked as she held out a dead rabbit to her "I had two catches today so..." Rue eyes flickered at the meat, it was clear she hadn't had any proper food since her time before the games began. Amy smiled and a slight chuckled emerged "Well come on then" she said with a smile.

Rue walked up to Amy and said

"I can fix those stings for you"

"Can you?" Amy asked as she started a small fire to cook the rabbits "How?"

Rue bends down and takes out a bunch of herbs from her bag

"Where did you find them?" Amy asks as she sees the plants

"Oh just around" Rue simply replies "We use them all the time in the orchards, there's a lot of nests there"

"Of course!" Amy exclaimed "You're from district 11, agriculture" Rue nodded in agreement

"Orchards eh? I guess that how you can fly around the tree tops like you've got wings?" Amy said cockily, just like Sonic would. Rue smiles, Amy landed on the few things she would admit pride in.

"Well come on then, fix me up" Amy says with a smile. Rue comes closer to Amy and takes a handful of leaves. To Amy's surprise, Rue takes the handful of leaves and places them in her mouth, only for them to be chewed, once they were properly chewed on, Rue takes the sloppy mixture and places it on Amy's hand and neck

"Ohhh" The sound comes out of Amy's mouth before she could even stop it, the mixture felt like it was leaching the pain right out of the skin "Do my cheek, do my knee!" Amy practically begs, Rue giggles at her childishness and puts on another handful of sloppy mixture on her skin

"Good thing you were clever to remove the stingers or you'd be a lot worse" Rue comments, Amy then turns to Rue and notices a bad burn on her arm

"I have something for that" Amy says with a smile, she then pulls out her burn cream from her bag and dabs it on Rue's burn  
"You have good sponsors" Rue says longingly

"You haven't got anything yet?" Amy asks, Rue shakes her head in response "You will though, the longer the game goes on, the more people wills see just how clever you are" Amy then turns the meat over on the fire.

"You weren't joking, wanting me was an ally?" Rue asks

"Oh no, of course not!" Amy says with a smile, of course this alliance could only be temporary but none of them mention that. Amy could almost hear Haymitch, Shadow and even Knuckles, yelling at her for teaming up with such a skimpy child, but hey, she's a survivor, and she reminded her of Cream. Soon the meat was ready and the two began eating the two rabbits.

Soon silence swept through the two of them as they ate the food. Finally, once Amy finished her rabbit, she said

"I had a thought, you coming from district 11, you must have more food than us, since you grow food and all..." Rue's eyes widened and said

"Oh no! We're not allowed to eat the food!"

"They'd arrest you would they?" Amy asks, they being the peacekeepers.

"They'd whip you and make everyone watch" Rue says blankly "The mayor's very strict about it", Amy's eyes widened at that statement, it was clear that a public whipping was not rare in district 11. A whipping in district 12 was rare, it happened from time to time, which was very surprising, seeing as many of the remaining members Sonic team were in district 12.

"Do you get all the coal you want?" Rue asks, Amy mind immediately snaps back, of course, her district was mining

"No" Amy replies simply "We just buy and whatever we can track in our boots"

"They feed us a bit extra in the harvest season, to keep us going" Rue mentions

"Don't you have to be in school?" Amy asks

"No, everyone works during the harvest" Rue replies. It was every interesting for Amy, finding out about her life. Eggman banned any contact between the districts, in case an uprising was started against him.

"I never asked" Amy said "How old are you?"

"15, as of 3 months ago" relied "You?"

"23" Amy replied. Another silence swept through the two.

Soon after, Amy and Rue divide their food equally so that if they got separated they would have enough food to last them at least an extra 3 days. Apart from the food, Rue had a small water skin, a home made sling shot and an extra pair of socks. All this and a sharp rock she used for cutting up plants and fruit.

"I know it's not much" Rue says as if she was embarrassed "But I had to get away from the cornucopia quickly"

"And you were clever to do so" Amy replies, Amy then empties the contents of her bag, as she did she notices the small axe she managed to get a hold of in the cornucopia. Seeing as Rue had little ways of defense, Amy hands over the axe to her. Rue's eyes widened

"Oh no! I can't take that! What will you have to defend yourself!" she says with shock, Amy points to her bow and arrows and says

"I've got these, and besides I know you won't kill me in the night" Amy looks up slightly to the cameras as if to make a point to Haymitch and Shadow, who she knew will be highly against this gesture. Rue then looks at Amy and gently takes the axe and places it beside her

"Thank you" she mutters

"You're welcome" Amy says with a smile. Amy then extinguishes the fire and the two head up a high tree to shelter during the night.

As the two settle down in Amy's sleeping bag, Amy asks

"Rue, I had a thought, I only woke up today, so what did I miss?"

"Three, the boy from 10 and the girl from 1" Rue replies

"And the other one?" Amy asks, Rue's face drops

"I'm sorry..." she says, immediately Amy knew just who she was talking about "He died two nights ago" Ari, Ari had died.

"How?" Amy asks

"The careers wounded him for betraying them and well I think he died from infection" Rue replies, Amy looks down. It was sad, upsetting that he died, but in a way it was probably best, the end of the games are always the worst, best he died now rather than later.

"So one of the careers died?" Amy asks trying to break the silence and trying to hide her obvious sadness

"Yeah, but that doesn't matter, they're strong, they can survive with three of them"

"But we're strong too" Amy says in defense "Just in a different way"

"You are, you can shoot, what can I do?" Rue replies

"You can feed yourself, can they?" Amy replied with a smirk

"They don't need to, they have all those supplies" Rue replies

"Say they didn't, say all the supplies were gone? How long would they last then?" Amy asked with a mischievous smile "I mean it's the Hunger Games right?"

"But Amy, they're not hungry" Rue replies with disappointment and confusion

"No, their not and that's the problem" and for the first time, Amy had a plan, a plan that would surly put the odds in their favour "And I think we're going to have to fix that Rue" Rue smiles and nods in response.

Soon the anthem starts to play and Rue smuggles up to Amy for warmth. Just before she falls asleep, Rue whispers to Amy

"I know who you are" Amy's eyes widened, but she doesn't turn to her, for fear the game makers would notice "I know what happened to you and to your team all those years ago, and i'm so sorry" Rue then lifts herself up to face Amy, who turns to face her, she whispers her words so that the game makers won't hear. "I was only two when the war ended, but I remember when it did, when th districts were put into place, when you know who came to power, and I just want to say, I don't blame you, or the team, or Sonic the hedgehog. I blame none of you" Before Amy could stop herself, she gives Rue a hug and starts to cry

"I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry" she whispers, making sure she wasn't heard from the game makers "We will stop this, one day we will take down you know who and his army" Rue pulls away from Amy and looks at her

"I'm sure you will, I have no doubt about it" the two smile for a bit and then lie back down in the tree, with that anthem finishes and the arena is plunged into darkness again. Just before the two went to sleep, Rue says one more thing

"Never give up hope Amy, never give up hope" Amy smiles and replies

"Never, you can count of that, Rue, I never will"


	12. Chapter 11, Farewell

**Chapter 11, Farewell**

The next day, Rue and Amy woke up at dawn in order to set everything in place for their plan to weaken the careers. Their plan was to destroy the careers food and supplies so they would have to fend for themselves. And due to the amount of knowledge the careers possessed, Amy and Rue knew that would be hard for them.

All throughout the morning Rue and Amy set up huge piles of logs, branches and leaves to act as beacons, all around to the cornucopia, hidden in the trees. The girls were finished setting up the beacons by mid-day. At that point the careers were up and roaming the outside of the cornucopia.

Amy and Rue walked along the inside of the tree, being careful to not be seen.

"Now the beacons are going to light like crazy so be sure to move on to the next one as soon as you lit one" Amy said to Rue as the walked through the trees, soon they made it to the last beacon were Amy said "Light this one last and I'll meet you other there" Amy pointed to a small hiding amongst the trees

"Right" Rue answered as she placed down the last branch on the beacon.

"And then I'll destroy their stuff while they're chasing us" Amy said as she placed down two more branches on the beacon.

"We need a signal in case one of us gets held up" Rue said

"Okay, like what?" Amy asked, Rue paused for a minute as she thought about the possible signal, she then looked up towards the tree tops and saw some familiar looking birds.

"Here, watch this" Rue said, she then sung a small four note melody. Once she finished the melody, the birds copied the tune and thus spreading the tune all over the forest, before eventually dieing down.

"Mockingjays..." Amy muttered "That's great"

"Back home, we use them to signal the time" Rue said "You try" Amy looked up and whistled another small tune, which the mockingjay's also copied.

"Okay, so if we hear that, it means we're okay and we'll be back real soon" said Rue after the mockingjays finished coping Amy's tune.

"We're going to be okay" Amy said, trying to make Rue feel a bit less on the edge. Then, to Amy's surprise, Rue gave Amy a hug as if to say _Please be okay._

"Hey, I'll see you for supper" Amy said with a smile as she pulled away from Rue, Rue smiled back and the two parted ways.

Amy walked back to the cornucopia, she stopped just at the rim of the tree line, just out of sight of the careers but close enough so she was still able to see. All the supplies were stocked up in one huge pile in front of the cornucopia. It seemed awfully easy to get a hold of them, but there had to be a catch. Somewhere.

Amy looked over at the paddle stones, there were mounds right next to each one, little piles of dirt as if something was dug up from beside the paddle stone. It was all a bit confusing. Then as Amy was in mid thought, one of the careers noticed the smoke from one of the beacons. He pointed out to the rest of the careers and soon they left to examine the source of the smoke. A small smirk rose on Amy's face, the plan was working. As Amy slowly approached she noticed that one boy was left behind, but he didn't look like a career. He looked like the boy from one of the other districts, _The careers must have brought him along because he was useful for something _Amy thought. Thinking that he wouldn't be much of a threat, Amy took a couple of steps closer.

Then suddenly, out of nowhere, a girl, possibly from district 5, ran out on to the field and ran straight for the pile of supplies. Amy's eyes widened in shock,_ It couldn't be that easy!_ Amy though, and indeed it wasn't. Instead of running straight for the pile, the girl stopped a few feet ahead of it, and then started jumping from on spot to another as she worked her way in. It looked like some sort of dance. But it was far more than that. Finally it clicked for Amy. _There were mines! There were mines surrounding the pile of supplies! The boy from the other district must have dug out the mines next to paddle stones and rewired them so they were active once again. Burying around the pile would ensure no-one would be able to get a hold of the supplie_s. Amy thought, Amy then giggled slightly at the fact someone did manage to. After the girl ran off, the boy got up and started following her. _This is becoming too easy! _Amy thought with a smirk. Having thought up of a way to destroy the supplies, Amy walked closer to the pile and loaded her bow. She saw a bag of apples suspending from the top of the pile. Amy pulled back her bow and aimed towards the bag, she then fired the arrow but it only skimmed the top of the bag, not doing anything at all. A sigh of frustration left Amy's lips and she reloaded the bow, she took a couple more steps closer and drew back the bow. Amy breathed in deeply, making sure all her concentration was on the shot. She inhaled and exhaled, making sure she was completely focused. Finally, Amy released the bow and the arrow was sent flying through the air. The arrow sliced through the bottom of the bag and all the apples tumbled down the pile and onto the ground. As the apples hit the ground, the mines detonated and numerous explosions were set off. Finally the pile exploded and Amy was sent flying through the air. In a couple of seconds no-one of the supplies remained.

After the explosion gave way, the careers quickly returned, they were furious. The boy from district 2 killed the boy from the other district when he returned. There was nothing left, absolutely nothing. Amy grudgingly got back up, only to notice that the explosion left her deaf in one ear. All she could hear was a high pitched ring. However, noticing that the careers had returned, Amy got a hold of herself, and ran straight back into the forest, hoping that she wasn't seen.

As Amy ran in the forest, she whistled her four note tune to say that she was okay. The mockingjays repeated the tune and it went all across the forest, soon the tune died down and Amy repeated it, making sure Rue would hear it. Getting worried that there was no response, Amy carried on walking in the forest in the search of Rue. As Amy walked on, she came across the last the beacon, to her shock and fear, it wasn't lit. Suddenly Amy heard a voice calling her name

"Amy, Amy!" the voice belonged to Rue, immediately Amy ran towards the sound of her voice "Amy, Amy help!" she called, finally Amy made it to her and to her shock, Rue was trapped underneath a net.

"It's okay" Amy said as she quickly sawed away at the rope. "It's okay" soon the rope was cut and Rue could escape. Amy helped Rue up and the two hugged each other, glad that both were now safe.

Just as the two pulled apart, a sound of a twig snapping was heard from behind them, Amy snapped around to find the boy from district 1 armed with a spear, he threw it in their direction, but Amy dodged it and fired an arrow into his heart. The boy fell to the ground. Dead.

Amy turned around to face Rue, but to her fear and shock, Rue was impaled with the spear, blood slowly flowing around her stomach. Rue slowly removed the spear from her stomach and threw it aside. She then fell and would have hit the ground if Amy hadn't caught her just in time.

"Oh god!" Amy cried, she gently laid her on the ground, keeping Rue's head on her lap. Amy gently touched the skin around the wound to see if there was any way to treat it. But alas, the wound was too deep for any possible forms of treatment, not in their current situation anyway. A small tear flowed down Rue's face

"It's okay, you're okay, you're okay" Amy said as tears flowed down her face, she knew it was pointless to say she would be okay, Rue was old enough and mature enough to know when things were not okay.

"Did you destroy the food?" Rue asked as she panted through her last breaths,

"Yeah," Amy said with a sad smile "Every last bit of it"

"Good..." Rue responded, a small silence past through the two, until... "You have to win..." Rue said to Amy with stern, yet faithful eyes, Amy looked over at the dead body of the boy then back at Rue, Amy nodded ever so slightly

"Can you sing?" Rue asked, a few more tears left her eyes, Amy nodded once again

"Yes, yes of course" Amy cleared her throat and started singing

"Deep in the meadow, under the willow  
A bed of grass, a soft green pillow  
Lay down your head, and close your sleepy eyes  
And when again they open, the sun will rise"

As soon as Amy started singing, Sonic, Knuckles, Tails and Cream, knew exactly what song she was singing, this wasn't just any old song, this was the song from back in the war.

"Here it's safe, here it's warm  
Here the daisies guard you from every harm  
Here your dreams are sweet and tomorrow brings them true  
Here is the place where I love you"

Back in the war, whenever a close friend or comrade died or if on was scared, Amy would sing this song as a reminder that there will always be somewhere safe and that the world wasn't completely in chaos. It served as a reminder of hope, hope that was never too far away.

"Deep in the meadow, hidden far away  
A cloak of leaves, a moonbeam ray  
Forget your woes and let your troubles lay  
And when again it's morning, they'll wash away

Here it's safe and here it's warm  
And here the daisies guard you from every harm  
And here your dreams are sweet and tomorrow brings them true  
Here is the place where I love you  
Here is the place where I love you"

As Amy finished the song, Rue gave her last breath, and her eyes gently closed. Amy cried helplessly, Rue was dead and there was nothing she could do. Amy lay Rue down and got up, she closed her jacket so the wound couldn't be seen. Amy knew she would have to leave, but she couldn't, she just couldn't. Instead, Amy plucked some beautiful flowers from the forest floor and laid them out around Rue, so that she would have a decent resting place. Finally, Amy knew she had to leave. But before she did, she looked up to the sky, to the cameras and did the sign of the districts. Three fingers pointing to the sky. And that she left, only to continue the games.

Little did she know, that back at district 11, Rue home, those watching the games, did the sign with her, a mark of respect, courage and hope. But this hope sparked in the hearts of others, not just in the boundary of district 11, back in district 12, Cream, Rouge, Tails, Knuckles and even Shadow followed in Amy's lead, all hoping, all sincere. Other members of the Sonic team followed and even Sonic himself followed in her footsteps.

But this hope sparked into something else, and that was anger and hatred. Anger for the people of Eggtropolis, and hatred towards Eggman himself.


	13. Chapter 12, No More Owed

**Chapter 12, No More Owed**

Amy walked on in the woods of the arena, with no real motif or plan in mind, she wondered aimlessly through the midst of the forest. Finally, after about three hours of aimlessly walking, Amy decided to rest for a while, seeing as there was no other tribute in sight, a couple of minutes wouldn't hurt.

_How many are left?_ She thought as she sat down on a cold rock, Both from district two remained, as is the boy from eleven, including her that makes four, but there was one more, one more tribute that Amy couldn't remember. It didn't matter much though.

Right now she was worried about the remaining careers, and the gamemakers. Since Rue's death, the games were starting to run a little slower, soon enough, the gamemakers will want to heat things up to speed up the games and make them more interesting for the spectators. That will mean that there will be blood, a lot of it. But there was one other worry, after the explosion back at the cornucopia, a shard of metal sliced her leg, it didn't matter much to her at the beginning, but now it was effecting her movement and her health, without proper medicine, death would be inevitable.

Soon dusk drew in and the arena slowly plunged into darkness. Amy climbed up a tree and strapped herself in with the rope. So far, it was a peaceful night, until...

An announcement was made. It was from Caesar Flickerman and it boomed all across the arena

"Attention Tributes" he said "I have a special announcement to make..." Amy looked up at the sky, not that she would see anything but she did it out of instinct

"Tomorrow at dawn there will be a feast" _A feast,_ Amy thought, the gamemakers would usually hold one when the games were running too slowly, it was no surprise that they decided to hold one at this moment

"But, this will be no ordinary feast, each of you need something, something that could mean the difference between life or death" Amy's eyes widened, _Medicine_ she thought with shock yet joy.

"So a reminder, the feast will be held at the cornucopia at dawn. That is all" with that, Caesar's voice vanished and the arena was plunged into silence once again.

Amy leaned back on the tree. It was awfully tempting, but could she rick it, there would be no doubt that the other tributes will be there too, the tributes from district two were violent and brutal, they knew how to fight. But so did the boy from eleven. He was strong and knows how to handle a sword. The three of them could kill her easily. Amy only knew how to hunt.

_It's not that different..._

The voice of Knuckles echoed in her mind, although it seemed wrong, it was the truth, animals or human, both could be killed the same way.

A sigh escaped Amy's lips. Decisions, decisions... It was hard to choose...

Stay put and risk dying from infection or go and risk getting killed from the other tributes.

What would Knuckles do? What would Shadow do? What would Haymitch do?

They would go for it. They stood a chance.

But so did Amy.

Amy had just about the same amount of chance as anyone else!

And if she was quick and the first one there, she would be in and out in under a minute.

It was decided, despite the odds, Amy will go. She had to win, she promised she would.

The next day, Amy woke up before dawn, the sun had not even awaken yet. Amy quietly got out of the tree and made her way to the cornucopia. The morning fog hung onto her like a leech. When Amy made it to the cornucopia, she lurked amongst the bushes around it. She looked around to see if anyone was there, but so far, no-one was in sight. Either that or everyone else was hiding from view and waiting, just like her. Amy could also see the mouth of the cornucopia, and in front of the mouth lay a table, and on that table, five bags were placed. Each on of a different size, and each one with a different number. There were two medium sized bags labeled 2, one big bag labeled 5, another medium bag labeled 11, and one small bag labeled 12.

After a short while of just sitting there, Amy decided that it was now or never. Slowly she got up, making sure she was still hidden amongst the leaves. Then in a single impulse, Amy ran out of the bushes and out onto the field. However after a couple of feet, Amy suddenly stopped, a noise was heard from the cornucopia. Amy's eyes widened in shock and fear.

From the inside of the cornucopia, a girl ran out, grabbed the bag labeled 5 and ran away.

_Of course, the girl from district 5! _Amy thought _Why didn't eye think of that? Stay in the cornucopia and you can take anyone by surprise. _

Quickly, Amy brushed away those thoughts and thought back to the feast. Immediately, Amy gathered her senses and ran to the table of bags. She managed to get a hold of the bag labeled 12, but as she turned to make her escape, she saw the girl from two, also known as Clove directly in front of her. Amy quickly fired an arrow to her but she missed and the girl threw a knife at her, Amy fell back as the knife sliced the side of her face. Quickly, Amy fired two more arrows at the girl as she came running towards her but both of them missed. Clove then got a hold of Amy and pushed her to the ground. The two wrestled on the ground, Amy trying to get rid of the girl whereas Clove was trying to kill her. Soon Clove took out her knife and tried stabbing Amy, but Amy dodged it every time. Soon Clove manged to get a hold of Amy, with the knife in her hand and Amy underneath her, Clove took her knife and tried to stab it in Amy's face, but as the knife got within a couple of inches of her face, Amy took a hold of the knife and tried desperately to push it away. Soon enough, Amy managed to push Clove off of her, but that didn't stop Clove from trying again. The two wrestled on the ground once again, and soon Clove had the upper hand, and quickly Clove trapped Amy underneath her, her foot of Amy's hand and her knife poised against her neck.

"Hoping you would get away, are we?" she said with an evil smirk "Oh, I see, you thought you were going to win, right?" Clove put even more pressure on Amy's hand, while Amy still struggled to push her away.

"You, know it's too bad you couldn't help your little friend, what was her name? Rue?" Clove said more spitefully "Yeah, well we killed her, and now, we're going to kill you" Clove then took out a smaller, sharper blade and aimed at Amy's face. But just as Clove lowed the blade, she was suddenly pulled back by an unseen force. Amy was so stunned for a minute, she couldn't quite gather of what had just happened.

After Amy regathered her senses, she got up and saw Clove pushed up against the cornucopia by the boy from district eleven, also known as Thresh.

"You killed her?!" he yells with anger to her

"No, no, It wasn't me, it wasn't me!" she cried

"You sliced her up like you were going to slice this girl up!" he spat

"No, No... I... I..." she stammered through words and tears, Clove noticed a stone in Thresh's hand, it was about the same size of a small loath of bread. At that moment, Clove loses it

"Cato, Cato!" she shrieks at the top of her voice, she was begging for anyone to save her. Not that it would do her much good. At that moment, Thresh brings down the rock on her skull, there isn't any blood but there was a clear dent in her skull, and by that, Amy knew that Clove was a goner.

Before Amy could react, Thresh turned towards her, confusion and anger in his eyes

"What did she mean, about you and Rue being friends?" he asked

"I... I... We teamed up, became allies, we blew up the supplies, I tried to save her, I did, but he got there first, district one" Amy stutters, fear and anguish roaming within her.

"And you killed him?" Thresh demanded

"Yes, I killed him and buried her in flowers" Amy replies "And I sand her to sleep" Tears started flowing down her face, her mind going blurry as she remembered the memory

"To sleep?" Thresh asks with confusion

"To death, I sang her to death" Amy replies as the tears continued to flow, she then wiped her nose and looked back up at Thresh "Just do it quickly, okay Thresh?"

Thresh looked at Amy, and then at the stone in his hand, conflicting emotions showed clearly on his face. But surprisingly, he puts the stone down, almost accusingly

"Just this time twelve, for Rue, for her, you and me, we're even then, no more owed, do you understand!?" he said, almost like an order. Amy nodded, she did understand, about owing, about hating it. That if Thresh wins he would have to go back to his district knowing that he broke the rules.

Thresh then turned away from Amy, grabbed his bag and ran off into the forest. Amy then quickly followed in his lead, she grabbed her bag and went off in the opposite direction, making sure she wasn't followed.

_One down, four remaining,_ Amy thought _The games will be over soon._


	14. Chapter 13, Clever, Too Clever

**Chapter 13, Clever, Too Clever**

Soon after the feast, Amy applied the medicine to her leg and it worked perfectly, now Amy was back on her feet. It was midday, and Amy was forging for food. It was the tenth day in the arena and there was no doubt that the gamemakers would want to end the game soon. But as much as that feared Amy, she tried her best to focus on the now, and right now she needed to eat. She searched all morning for some edible fruit or berries but unfortunately for her, all there was a poisonous berry called night-lock, Amy knew that if she took one of those berries she'd be dead in less than a minute. So Amy carried on walking through the foliage.

Suddenly, to Amy's joy, a small rabbit scurried into the bushes, and where one rabbit is, more rabbits are bound to be. So, Amy carefully set up some snares around to foliage, using a tiny portion of night-lock as bait. She then sat a good ten meters away from the foliage, waiting for one of the rabbits for take the bait.

Amy waited for a good ten minutes, when all of sudden, the canon is heard. Amy's head jerks upwards, immediately, Amy gets up, forgets the rabbits and runs away from the area. Thinking that the last career was in the area, Amy needed to get out and away.

But as Amy was about to leave her current area, she noticed a foot coming out from behind a bush. Curiosity getting the better of her, Amy peeked around to see who the foot belonged to, to her surprise, it was the girl from district five, _Had she been following me?! _Amy thought with slight fear, if so then she was incredibly quiet and clever. But Amy saw something that changed her view on that, in the dead girls hand, was a bunch of berries and around her mouth, was berry juice. There was no doubt that she had eaten some berries, which unfortunately for her was night-lock. _She must have seen me pick some for bait and think I was going to eat them, therefore she trusted my instinct, after all I had made it this far, why wouldn't she? _Amy thought, the girl was clever, too clever, and unfortunately for her it cost her, her life.

Amy sighed once again before she left the area once more. _Another down, three more to go. Not long now. _


End file.
